Organisation: Queensland Department of Education and Training
Job Title: Regional Inclusion Coach
Word Limit: 2 Pages
Location: Toowoomba
Supports Strategic Direction
Working with the Northern Territory Department of Education, my role as Manager Student Support – Schools Education South is to coordinate and facilitate the access to support and specialist services to which students are entitled to ensure that they are not prevented from properly accessing education services as a result of disability, as provided for by the NT’s Anti-Discrimination Act. In my work I am guided by the Department’s inclusion philosophy and Students with a Disability Policy, together with the federal Disability Standards for Education. As the Supervisor of eighteen advisory staff and two special education teachers at 61 government schools and 6 non-government schools in the Alice Springs and Barkly regions, one of the ways I ensure that this team is able to provide specialist services assisting students with disabilities to engage in successful learning in accordance with Departmental policy and relevant legislation, is to provide and facilitate access to professional development related to specific types of disability.
In my capacity as the coordinator of ten specialist service teams, I facilitate the delivery of services within a Three Tiers of Response to Intervention framework. My approach is to ensure that Student Support Services are targeted, transparent, of high quality and specialist in nature, recognising the relevant services of external agencies. Through development and delivery of a tailored Service Delivery Partnership and Plan with individual schools, I enable Schools Education South to provide support services that reflect whole‑school approaches, support teaching staff requirements, and deliver services to individual students in a way that supports students with a disability in the educational context.
Achieves Results
Led by the strategic priorities and intended outcomes of the Department of Education’s strategic plans, I have achieved results through the building of capacity and responsiveness of schools and teachers to provide positive outcomes for vulnerable students. For example, a large number of referrals to Student Support for students experiencing difficulty with learning over a number of years indicated a lack of problem-solving at school level for students with disabilities. I recognised a deficiency in school collaborative partnerships with staff, the students and families to identify specific interventions that best meets the needs of individual students. To address this, it was identified that I needed to develop a multi‑layered whole‑school framework Response to Intervention (RTI) that could be usefully applied to make decisions about tiered interventions that best meets the needs of students with diverse needs who were struggling to engage in learning.
As a result of my research into the RTI framework and sharing this research with senior team leaders, I successfully influenced Territory-wide adoption of RTI as a service delivery model for Student Support. Currently in its fourth year since adoption, this framework has resulted in the development of teacher resources and iSupport access and the delivery of targeted professional development activities which have enhanced the capacity of teachers to develop and display teaching practices that support the ongoing engagement of students with diverse needs in their learning.
Supports Productive Working Relationships
In my present role as Manager Student Support, I am responsible for oversight of provision of specialist services at 67 schools, all of diverse compositions and capacities. It is important that I provide coaching to school leadership teams that is appropriate for their level of experience and capacity. An example of my success can be found in the work I have recently done with a local senior college with three special education classes and complex needs. Identifying that staff coaching was required to develop and improve the capacity of the school to deliver improved learning outcomes to its students with disabilities, I set up fortnightly meetings with the Coordinator of Special Education and the Special Education teacher. At these meetings I worked with staff to identify priorities for individual students and develop achievable, measurable agreed actions that could be followed up at the next meeting. I also provided coaching to assist in developing their professional skills, modelling processes such as conducting an appropriately structured meeting and properly referring information to relevant agencies. This process has increased the capacity of these staff members to provide support to students with diverse needs.
As I have undertaken my present role, I have recognised that there has been an under-utilisation by schools of the services, resources and solutions that can be offered and facilitated by the Student Support team, with schools frequently only tapping in to funding resources rather than the full range of support, training, intervention and assistance services that could be offered. In order to address this, I have worked with principals and leadership teams of individual schools with complex needs to develop a Service Delivery Partnership and Plan focused on Response to Intervention that met the individual needs in that school. In order to achieve this, I have needed to work successfully with school leaders to analyse school needs and identify gaps in capacity, which can then be responded to through an appropriately tailored plan.
Displays Personal Drive and Integrity
In my career I have achieved delivery of a range of projects that have demonstrated measurable positive outcomes. One project that I have recently pursued and delivered independently has been the implementation of a program entitled ‘Psychologically Healthy Workplace: helping organisations work better’. Having identified issues that were limiting the effectiveness of the Student Support team, including resistance to change, limited collaboration, low team morale and high levels of workplace stress, I undertook a project to address these issues through the introduction of an appropriately tailored workplace wellbeing program. Consultation and liaison with regional and central leadership staff was an essential component of successfully facilitating this project. Following a scoping phase and a 15-month coordination process, I identified and engaged an appropriate provider of the services required. Since that time the provider has commenced interviews as the first stage of the program’s delivery. Managing timing of this project has been particularly complex due to the need to accommodate the peak demands on Student Support Services, in order to avoid exacerbating the workload issues that the program aims in part to address.
In another example of my capacity to achieve project outcomes, I participated in a scoping trip by Professor Loretta Giorcelli, providing a proposal for the delivery of ‘Quality Leaders Inclusive Schools’ (QLIS) that aligned with identified aims of Executive Leadership in providing opportunities for inclusive education through collaborative impact. My personal drive and integrity has steered this project in a time of significant change in our executive leadership. Following extensive collaborative discussion with school principals, I led the 18-month planning process that has recently culminated in the commencement of QLIS presentations to school leadership teams and opportunity for school leadership teams to interrogate their inclusive practice through utilisation of the Giorcelli Inclusive Schools Inclusive Practices tool.
Communicates with Influence
A clear and confident communicator, I effectively tailor my written and verbal communications for a diverse range of audiences in my daily work. As Manager Student Support – Schools Education South, I am responsible for supervision of 20 staff who provide specialist services assisting students with disabilities at 61 government schools and 6 non-government schools in the Alice Springs and Barkly regions. This large staff group and high number of schools means that there is considerable diversity in the skill and experience level of the staff and principals with whom I communicate. I successfully manage this diversity by adapting the style and content of my communications to ensure that they are clearly understood by, and relevant to, the recipient. Other aspects of my work require me to communicate with external agencies, professional practitioners such as paediatricians, and institutions such as Registered Training Organisations, which I achieve successfully both verbally and in writing. I consider my interpersonal skills to be one of my greatest strengths, and am held in high regard in my current role as a result of my reputation for acting with integrity and accountability, allowing others to have confidence that I will deliver what is promised. I treat all of my colleagues, whether they be school-based, specialist service providers or external stakeholders, with utmost respect as my co-collaborators in the delivery of improved student outcomes, and consistently work with others rather than over them, regardless of the position that they may hold.
